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We lose eight children and teenagers to gun violence every day. If a mysterious virus suddenly started killing eight of our children every day, America would mobilize teams of doctors and public health officials. We would move heaven and earth until we found a way to protect our children. But not with gun violence.”
― Elizabeth Warren
And then of course there is issue of fear, of giving in to it and teaching our kids to stop living at any sign of it, of letting the bad guys win just by the suggestion of the possibility of them being out there
Timely question.
Long story and I am not going into details for privacy reasons but a good friend of ours son was actually arrested and suspended from school for a very innocuous reason but due to the climate we are in everyone is being overly cautious. Now my friends are considering hiring an attorney and suing the school and the police. I cannot share details but I will say that both my dh and I feel the school and the police overreacted to what was absolutely no threat at all. And now this might affect our friend's kid from getting into a good school in the future and has adversely affected him emotionally. In ways one cannot begin to imagine if one has not gone through a situation like this. We live in a hyper reactive climate and innocent kids are the victims.
IDK the answers and I do not pretend to but definitely SMH over our friend's relatively recent incident.
I will say common sense is not too common these days it seems and perhaps if we can just think before we react and take the proper security measures (because yes even one life lost is too many) we would all be better off for it.
Arming teachers is NOT the answer.
The options are blunt instruments and don't take into account the immediacy/type of the threat. Is it a bomb threat? Empty the school and close it for the day. Or overall threat perception level? Encircle the school with barbed wire and have armed guards at checkpoints and metal detectors. (said TIC)
Arming teachers, as always, remains just mind-numblingly stupid, so that one is out.
Missy, I read your post to my husband, and I'm afraid that after decades in public education, he has a very different view of these issues, as you might expect. Parents are usually quite OK with stiff standards yet typically apply a different yardstick when it's their kid who gets caught by them. It's a VERY common trope.
The real test is, if you did not know this kids parents and the kid and he was sitting next to your kid, would you be OK with an administrator just assuming that something that met their stated standard (whatever that is) for reporting, and that was enough for suspension and to get the police involved, was not a threat? If you found out later that administrators and teachers were making those decisions on a case by case and throwing some out that met the standard because "he's a good kid", for kids you did not know, would you be OK with that?
No Karen, I would not be OK with that. We should all be held to the same standard regarding this. A threat is a threat. However this child made no such threat. Since I cannot go into details about this I probably shouldn't have even brought it up but since the question was posed I shared what I felt comfortable sharing. Suffice it to say what he did on any level could not/should not be construed as a threat to the safety of anyone. That is where the common sense (that is so uncommon these days) seems to be lacking. If the family decides to move forward and sue the school/ the police of course no one can know the outcome but I would not be surprised if they won that suit. This boy is now traumatized by this whole state of affairs.
I'm sorry he (and they) are going through this. That is such a difficult situation to be in. I feel for the school and police who had to deal with things in this scary time we live in. I also feel for the boy who is impacted forever because of someone said something to someone who said.... I don't know the details, but can guess a few possibilities.
I am sad because it seems we are all (or many of us) living in a constant state of fear and hyper vigilance. That is the paradox of fear. Often it has no basis in reality but is given strength in our minds.
As Gandhi said “The enemy is fear. We think it is hate; but, it is fear."
When option 3 (arm teachers) is even remotely considered, then we have totally lost control of society. By definition, teachers are teaching CHILDREN. Surely some form of gun control laws would be more sensible than sending a teacher into a classroom full of children, with bullets and a machine to fire them from?!
I fully understand that I’m speaking as a non-US citizen and that our gun culture is different, but good lord, is that really anyone’s best option?
I know it’s an emotive issue and don’t mean to offend anyone, but doesn’t the starkness of that even being an option shock anyone into wanting to tackle the root of the problem and not the symptom?